Senior Staff Software Engineer

The role

Lead engineering strategy and complex initiatives across multiple teams at Workstream. Own multi-squad systems architecture and drive architectural excellence across the organization.

What you will do

• Architect and deliver strategic engineering initiatives spanning multiple squads, coordinating parallel execution across engineers and AI agents.
• Own multi-squad systems architecture and establish technical direction, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, reliable, and cost-effective.
• Solve complex, organization-wide engineering challenges and drive architectural improvements that benefit multiple teams.
• Lead critical technical escalations and complex system incidents, driving effective recovery and long-term reliability improvements.
• Shape AI adoption strategies across engineering teams, including AI-assisted development, automated incident response, and production safeguards.
• Partner with engineering leaders, Product, and business stakeholders to translate ambiguous business problems into technical strategies that support organizational goals.
• Establish engineering best practices, mentor technical leads, and raise engineering standards through influence and collaboration.

Required qualifications

• 10 to 12+ years of experience building, architecting, and scaling complex production software systems.
• Deep expertise in at least one mainstream programming language (JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, C#, etc.), with the ability to work across different technology stacks.
• Excellent computer science fundamentals, problem-solving skills, and architectural design capabilities.
• Proven experience owning complex systems and driving technical architecture and initiatives across multiple engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, system scalability, security, performance, and architectural trade-offs.
• Demonstrated ability to lead high-impact engineering projects, manage critical technical escalations, and make sound decisions under pressure.
• Strong strategic thinking and communication skills, with the ability to influence engineering direction and align technical decisions with business objectives.
• Proven ability to mentor senior engineers and technical leads while building ownership and technical capabilities across teams.
• Experience driving engineering improvements, technical standards, and organizational adoption of new technologies.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to have

• Experience with Ruby on Rails or Node.js. Experience with both is a plus.
• Familiarity with React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Redis.
• Experience with AWS, Terraform, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Experience implementing AI-assisted engineering workflows, agent-driven development, or AI-powered incident management.
• Experience working with globally distributed engineering teams across multiple time zones.

Benefits

• A mission-driven and value-based company dedicated to empowering deskless workers and local businesses
• An early employee opportunity at a Series B hyper-growth startup
• Work with the founding team and industry veterans to accelerate your career
• Competitive salary and equity
• Comprehensive health coverage
• In-office amenities and stocked kitchen
• Flexible PTO
• Hybrid Office/WFH schedule

About the company

Workstream is a mission-driven company building an all-in-one HR, payroll, and hiring platform for the hourly workforce. Its customers include brands such as Burger King, KFC, and Culvers.